Better Read Than Dead: Psychic Eye Mysteries, Book 2

It started out so simply. Detroit psychic Abby Cooper was just going to help out her friend, Kendal by reading some Tarot cards at a wedding. (What kind of nut has Tarot Card readings at their wedding). That should have been her first clue that things weren't going to go well.Her second clue was while doing a reading, she realizes that the man, wearing a mask, (As are all the guests) sitting in front of her is a hit man who's killed a lot of people.Leaving the wedding in a hurry, Abby isn't too pleased when she realizes that she had just been doing psychic readings at a mob wedding.She's even less pleased the next day when the mob boss, Andros, father of the bride, has her hauled to his house. It seems he has a little problem with having paid for two Tarot card readers at his little girl's wedding, only to have them run out at the beginning. He'd like his money back and he'd like her to do a little job for him, find his wife, who disappeared over twenty years ago and hasn't been seen since.Abby has enough on her plate, as she's helping the police find a masked man who has been attacking women and killed his last victim, so she turns down the job, although she does write a huge check to cover their leaving.The mob isn't that easy to put off and Abby finds herself not only trying to outrun the mob but convince the police that they've arrested the wrong man and worrying about her boyfriend, "Dutch" who is on his first assignment as an FBI agent with his superior, a gorgeous woman who seems to want more than a partner relationship with him.Highlights:Although I don't believe in psychics, the character of Abby Cooper is very believable.I love that fact that she has several different storylines going on at one time. A lot of characters and a lot of things happening which really get you into the story.Dutch - the almost perfect boyfriend.Kendal - who finds his boyfriend in bed with another man when they get home from the wedding and running off to think things over, taking the mob bosses money with him, leaving Abby holding the bag.Lowlights:Minor one. Why if Milo (Dutch's former partner on the police force), asks her to help find the killer and listens to her clues, suddenly acts as if he doesn't believe in her psychic ability when she says he's arrested the wrong person.This also goes to Dutch who had seen Abby doing incredible things in the previous stories, suddenly act as if he didn't really believe she had any abilities at all.Great heroine, and a very enjoyable series.

This is the 2nd book in the Psychic Eye Series by Victoria Laurie, and I'm not sure I'll read any more of them. Her main character, Abby, just makes silly decision after silly decision, and it gets really difficult to suspend disbelief enough to go along with most of them. For example, and there are some minor spoilers here, if your boyfriend is an FBI agent, and his best friend is a local cop, wouldn't you tell one or both of them, if you were being threatened by the mob??? And not veiled threats, either. They sent someone to her house to poison her dog and someone to wreck her car and frame her for the accident. But, no. She tells no one about any of this. She originally got into this mess because she agreed to help her friend Kendall do readings at a wedding after the original psychic backed out. During the wedding, they realized it was a mob wedding, so they got their stuff and ran. Really, that's your solution when you realize you're mixed up with the mob? Take their money and run? Brilliant. How shocking that they wanted their money back and got her mixed up into the rest of this mess.The narration was ok. Some of it was the narrator (I got tired of hearing drop the final "r"s from words - mirror became mirra, terror became terra, etc.), and some of it was the story. The story is in 1st person; we're in Abby's head. We know if she's telling a lie. We don't need that "liar, liar, pants on fire" when she tells a lie. We know. It's constant, especially when the mob is after you and you're determined to keep it from the cops and FBI agents in your life. It set my teeth on edge every time I heard it. I can understand it when someone tells Abby a lie, and her intuition tells her they're lying, but we do NOT need it every time Abby tells one. There are a lot of repetitive phrases, and I think you notice them more when you're listening to the book. "Liar, liar, pants on fire" and "left side, feeling heavy", "right side, light and airy" over and over.I also can't understand what was happening with Dutch, the FBI agent, and his new partner. Apparently the new (female) partner is extremely hot, so Abby gets drunk at lunch (from one glass of wine) and proceeds to act like a high schooler who just found her boyfriend eating lunch with the head cheerleader. Not only does she come across as immature and ridiculous, she makes Dutch look stupid, too, in front of a new partner who's also his superior. Abby acts like this every time the partner is even mentioned in conversation. Yes, she's able to psychically find out that the partner does want Dutch, but so what? She also knows Dutch doesn't want her, so where's the dilemma? And instead of telling Dutch how all of this makes her feel, she stamps her foot and says "she started it!" and pouts. I didn't love the way Dutch acted sometimes, I thought he was bullying Abby a lot of the time, but I can't really be on her side, either.There was also a huge plot hole that bugged the crap out of me, and was never resolved. Spoiler - when Abby and Milo are watching the video of the attack on Cat, they see Cat on the phone talking to Abby, then Cat being attacked, then Cat being rescued. Completely ignoring the fact that her attacker spoke to her before he attacked her, without his mask, while she was on the phone with Abby. Abby heard Cat speaking to him "Oh, it's 11:15. Golly, Abby, men in this city sure are gorgeous", but he's not on the video of the attack. Why? Because Abby would have recognized him and ended that whole story line immediately. So instead, that whole part of the event is just ignored. I can't stand stuff like that.I don't know if I'll keep going with this series or not. I might give it one more, because I like the concept, but if it's the same, I probably wouldn't go beyond that.

I really like the characters and the dynamics of the relationships. This particular story was just stressful chaos from the beginning and wasn't light hearted much at all like the 1st. The 1st book had me LOL at times this one didn't at all. I am recovering from PTSD/anxiety/depression and hoped this was a series I could enjoy. I understand it is a crime and innately stressful, but like the 1st one it was hopeful and lighter. This book was just dark until the very last chapter it seemed. Im not sure I will continue reading this series.

This was the first one of the Abby Cooper books that I have read and I will search out the others. The cover makes it look like it's a little frivilous and I half expected humour - I was wrong about that - but lack of humour doesn't spoil the read. All likeable central characters (I hope the same ones are in the others) and although there are some menacing villains in the yarn, good wins out as always and there's a twist in the tale too - a little predictable when one of the villains is murdered but that is so close to the end that it doesn't spoil anything - an easy read which has gone back on the bookshelf now as I will no doubt read it again in the future.

War spannend, gut geschrieben, ein "page-turner", gute Charakterdarstellung und trotzdem ein "cozy mystery". Wer eine Mischung von Paranormal (aber nicht Vampir oder Werwolf-Zeugs) und Mystery mag, mit einer Portion Humor, ist hiermit gut beraten. Ein anderes empfehlenswertes Buch, noch humorvoller, aber in derselben Richtung: DEAD CELEB....viel Spass beim SChmökern